India has come out of self-binding shackles to look "young" again. The unprecedented growth in the number of credit card users has stimulated the Indian economy by a significant extent. The benefits of plastic money have offered unmatched ways to create an equilibrium and offer an amicable solution when it comes to purchases and the inability to possess or carry cash.

It has been also revealed that the increasing consumerism in the country has led to a two-fold increase in the number of credit card transactions.

The available data, which covers the first 10 months of 2006-07, indicates continued robust growth, in the number of credit cards increasing at 28% year-on-year. Over the same period, the value of credit card transactions grew by 20%.

But, the number of credit cards in India - 22 million - is tiny for a country with a population exceeding 1.1 billion. Since many people have multiple cards, the number of cardholders is much smaller than the number of cards in circulation.

According to data released by the RBI, Credit Card growth slowed down in FY 2007-08 mainly due to defaults by consumers. Here are some latest facts.

India now has 26 Million Credit Card users. For FY 2007-08, growth in new credit card accounts was 18%, previous financial year 33%. ICICI Bank is now the largest credit card issuing bank in India with 9 million cards.